Ignorance worsening effects of climate change

Climate change is real, but we must not allow preventable deaths after disaster. [iStockphoto]

A mission to establish the lesser-mentioned effects of climate change earlier this year led me to a place in Nyando District, Kisumu County, where at least 50 families rendered homeless by flooding had lived in camps for at least two years.

The issues included loss of livelihoods, especially for women. Places the women got reeds to make mats they traded in had become a haven for snakes and fish, while hippos and some crawling creatures dominated places humans previously did.

There was plenty of reeds and fish, but also higher risk of snakebites and attacks by hippos. Men changed careers, with older ones who were previously farmers opting for fishing, while younger ones, some unable to complete secondary education, going to boda boda sector.

Many victims spoke of trauma after losing livestock, houses and other property. They cited increased irritability and abuse as couples became less sexually active since they shared the small tents with teenage children. On the other hand, promiscuity and teenage pregnancy rose.

Flood victims had invaded abandoned homes, especially where death had swept families earlier. Schools, a church and a health centre were abandoned either because they were inaccessible or unusable.

An old woman named Lucia Atieno and her two grandchildren aged seven and five occupied a tent in a camp in Ogenya. Atieno, like many other displaced people, had also lost a grandchild while still at the camp in 2020 when Covid-19 was at its peak, and because her home was still inaccessible, she had to beg well-wishers for a place to bury her dead. The cemetery idea is unsellable there. A well-wisher offered to educate the children from scratch after I told their story in "The Standard".

When I returned there four days ago, armed with a few stuff, some donated by friends, to visit Atieno hoping to know her home this time and finding no tent. But there were tents, albeit fewer than had been when I first visited. Atieno's is one of them, though this time more spacious with an iron sheet roof. Its walls remain the UNICEF gunny bags.

The relief from knowing a well-wisher is educating her grandchildren has been grabbed by the setting in of a disease. The older child has sickle cell anaemia, which they do not know how to handle.

She has a skin problem that has left her with wounds all over her body. Her right wrist that was bent and stiffened by polio cannot hold a thing. The younger child still wears the skirt she had when I last visited in January.

In a home where priority is finding the daily bread, treating such a manageable disease has become tertiary, risking the child's life. Still, they rely on well-wishers for food.

The family has no NHIF cover, and bears little knowledge on how to access it. Since Atieno, who is illiterate, is not the children's mother, she does not know whether she needs one or two NHIF covers. The children's mother abandoned them over four years now.

The statistics on how widespread this information gap is may need to be determined and addressed before a life is lost. The government should do more civic education on the opportunity for health cover, especially among drought and flooding victims, some who lose crucial documents in the disasters.

Vernacular radio stations, as well as campaigns by opinion leaders rather than billboards and newspaper adverts can help.

Climate change is real, but we must not allow preventable deaths after disaster.

Happy New Year 2023.